Critic Reviews

While HERETIC may not be the watershed event that DOOM was, it is an excellent game and certainly a candidate for the top ten of 1995. The shareware version containing the first nine levels is probably floating around a BBS near you, but you'll need to call id Software to get the registered version in order to play Hell's Maw and The Dome of D'Sparil episodes. If you didn't DOOM, you probably won't like HERETIC either, and hey, good luck on your next of Solitaire. But that whirring noise you're hearing is millions of DOOM lovers' hard drivers clearing space for HERETIC.

Slick graphics; new enemies; and the chance to change your friends into chickens. Heretic's mystic setting just doesn't equal Doom in bone-crushing atmosphere. The same kick-in-the-teeth violence buffet as Doom, but with great new trimmings.

While Doom began the whole 3D gaming craze as we know it today, Heretic is when things started to get fun. It used the same 3D game engine as Doom, yet was set in a mystical time period, so magic wands and staffs were the "weaponry" (with a lot of impressive special FX to go with them). You could also collect additional spells as inventory items, that you could use at any time! Animation was equally improved; defeat a zombie warrior and see their freed spirit screaming up into the sky...Xena Warrior Princess, eat your heart out! This shareware game was soon followed by an off-the-shelf spin-off (of sorts), Hexen, which was set in the same storyline as Heretic. However, it was the inspired idea of Heretic that paved the road for any number of ingenious Doom clones, showing everything the Doom engine could accomplish...with the right game designers behind it!

Overall, Heretic is pretty much what you’d expect from a “Doom-clone.” It’s an industry-standard length at three full episodes, and any fantasy elements take a backseat to the core gameplay of messily blasting apart otherworldly foes. It’s about on par with iD’s creations, has some creative differences and additions, and is worth playing through if you’re a fan of the genre or, for whatever reason, aren’t playing Doom. That strength is an equal weakness for everyone who isn’t out to play every 90′s FPS ever made, and without Doom’s novelty, the number of people interested in playing an almost identical game is understandably cut.

Heretic is definitely the kind of game that you can spend many hours playing without realizing it. The enjoyment level is really high when you are doing well and drops slightly when you get lost in a maze of caverns. Heretic challenges your brain to figure out each level. If you don't, you feel like a loser. There is almost the perfect combination of intensity and inaction. The final showdown with the evil master is amazingly tough, so save your game often.